Probably looking for a commercial hit, John Huston one of the old guard Hollywood directors got himself involved in this film. Huston's heart didn't really seem to be into the film, it's filmed in a professional but not really involving manner.
The film is about an Allied prisoner of war camp during World War II. To entertain themselves, the British play football (soccer). This comes to the attention of one of the German officers who arranges for a football match between the German soldiers and the British prisoner of war soccer team. Frankly this film is about as big a fantasy as Quentin Tarantino's fantasy World War II epic, Inglourious Basterds.
Huston and his production team put together a decent cast of British and German actors. The leads were Michael Caine as the British soccer coach, Pele, one of the greatest players in the game, Max Von Sydow the Swedish actor playing a German yet again and Sylvester Stallone as the goalkeeper. Apparently Stallone and Huston didn't really get along very well during the filming. The film is also loaded with soccer stars from England.
The last part of the film is given over to the big game and for the most part it's fairly exciting. The film as a whole is decent if undemanding entertainment. An OK time killer at best.
Written by Evan Jones and Yabo Yablonsky, the running time is 117 minutes.
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